by John Burfisher, Medill News Service

by John Burfisher, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON - Several thousand people gathered in Washington on Monday to push Congress to restore more than $2 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health, warning that without the money, advances in areas such as breast cancer research may be lost.

"Funding medical research is a no-brainer when it comes to our national interests," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. "Let's make sure we have more progress, more hope and more lives."

At least $32 billion is needed for next year's budget, according to rally organizers. Automatic spending cuts across all government agencies - called sequestration - and other budget cuts have reduced the NIH budget from $31 billion to $29 billion, according to a spokesman for the American Association for Cancer Research.

Allison Hanaford, a fetal tumor researcher at the association, said, "to cut the funding is like pulling the rug out from everything that has been done recently." Progress made in research, like breast cancer, may be lost.

Crawley, W.Va., resident Ruth Caruthers was at the rally to advocate in memory of her son, who was 3 months old when he died of heart disease. "Medical research means to me that every baby gets the chance to survive."

"Today's scientific discovery is tomorrow's medical advance," said Arthur Levine, dean of the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. Cutting funding "will cause â?¦ health care problems and health care cuts," he said. Much of the NIH funding goes to grants for universities and other entities to conduct medical research.

President Obama released a statement Monday supporting the rally. "To meet the challenges of the 21st century we must commit to a serious sustained effort to advance medical research," Obama said.

Obama plans to release his budget proposals Wednesday for fiscal year 2014.